'Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles' will be performed Tuesday and Wenesday at the Civic Center. / Special to the Register

‘Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles’

There’s a new Beatles fan born every minute, which helps explain the popularity of a show like “Rain: A Tribute to The Beatles.”

At least that’s the theory of Steve Landes, who has played John Lennon in the show since 1998 (he also played the role in Beatlemania before that).

While re-releases, specials and a slow drip of previously unreleased materials coming on the scene have driven spikes in the popularity of the Beatles over the decades, the “Rain” show has produced a pretty steady flow of goodwill.

“It always seems to be consistent for us. I think people find new reasons to be enthusiastic again about the Beatles,” Landes said during a phone interview. “There are things like the ‘Across The Universe’ movie or the Anthology releases, new CDs and now the 50th anniversary of the band coming to America. Something always pops up to remind us of the Beatles.

“I hope we’re one small little piece of that puzzle.”

The Rain show is divided into segments of the band’s career. The show starts off re-creating the Fab Four’s Ed Sullivan performance, then the movies years and the Shea Stadium concert before closing with material from “Sgt. Pepper’s,” “Abbey Road” and the London rooftop concert.

For the last part of the show, the ensemble plays songs that The Beatles never played live (other than rooftop songs). While there are plenty of filmed references for earlier material, Landes said the band gets a bit more leeway when it comes to how the later songs might have been played live.

“I think that’s where the acting element comes into it as far as the performance,” Landes said. “The earlier stuff is more an imitation or replication.

“For the later songs we really have to do our homework. We watched footage of what little video there is of them in the studio, or TV appearances and the movies. How would they be performing live? Would they be acting like they did in the studio? We’re trying to interpret the character of this person in that moment. That’s part of the fun of our job.”